Generic Software for Emulating Multiprocessor Architectures

摘要

The expense of designing, prototyping, and testing a new computer architecture, (particularly non-traditional supercomputer architectures, such as the dataflow machine) is enormous. The relative inflexibility of hardware to experimental changes increases the need to fully test a new architectural idea. A software architecture for prototyping and testing single- and multiprocessor computer architectures is outlined. An overall design is discussed, noting the need for such a system, how it would be used to model and test various architectures, and possible implementation paths. Various extensions and uses of such a generic prototyping system are also described, including extensions for modelling shared-resource systems, centrally synchronized systems, and distributed timing simulation systems. In addition, two uses of the system are presented, in particular the Tagged Token Dataflow Architecture, noting various methods in which such a machine may be simulated under a generic emulation package. Additional keywords: MEF (Multiprocessor Emulation Facility); interpreters. (Author)